A recent camping trip on an off-weekend between motorsport photo shoots at the Koreshan Unity Settlement Historic Site at Koreshan State Park in Estero , Florida seemed like the perfect opportunity to pull out one of my old 35mm film cameras and a roll of expired T-Max 400 and indulge my new/old obsession: film photography.

The Historic Site, which is all that remains of a religious community established in the late 1800's near Ft. Myers, Florida, is a photographically target-rich environment, just begging to be photographed on black and white film!

More than 100 years ago, the original settlers of the community moved here with visions of establishing a city which they hoped would grow to as many a s 10 million people and be a worldwide center for their religion. This vision did not quite pan out, and by the 1980's all the residents of the community were gone, leaving behind their story and the few physical structures that remain.

With the limited time I had, I made a couple of trips through the set, photographing it both digitally as well as on 35mm film. I used a Canon EOS 650, which was Canon's original EOS autofocus body back in the 80's, which I had picked up at an online auction for next to nothing. The beauty of these old canon bodies is that you can use all your current canon mount lenses with them, and their functions are fairly intuitive for a Canon shooter.

Interior view, Damkohler House, built in 1882

For someone like myself, who spent 20 years in film photography before the dawn of the digital age right about the turn of the century, it is hard to grasp the attraction I now feel for film photography, more than 15 years down the road from casting off all my old chemical-stained clothing. I think it has something to do with the deliberateness of the process, from determining the composition, focus and exposure to the finality of pressing the shutter button and advancing the film one more step toward the end of the roll, knowing that when the film is gone, the photography is over.

And, as someone recently told me, I am a glutton for punishment apparently, as I have even pulled all my old processing tanks out of storage, ordered chemical from Amazon, and gone to work processing my own film. The excitement as I anticipate the images on the film is just like it was for me in the old days, when there was no other way to produce photographic images, I find that I am still unable to wait for the full duration of the fixing chemical time before I have pulled the wet film out of the fixer and am holding it up to the light with a magnifier to see what I've actually captured.

The Founder's House, built in 1896

Anyway, I was happy with the results of my hour spent at the Koreshan Unity Settlement with my old Canon EOS 650 and an expired roll of Kodak T-Max 400, and would encourage any photography with a curiosity for the origins of his or her craft to pick up an old film camera and some film and give it a go. My belief is that it will only deepen your love for photography

To view my full 35mm film gallery from the Koreshan Unity Settlement, please click here

www.bcpix.com is the online home for the photographic archive of Florida-based photographer Brian Cleary. At this portal not only can you search and browse an ever-growing collection of photography covering more than 30 years, but many of the images are available for online purchase as editorial images, commercial images and/or personal use prints.

Once again, the 12 Hours of Sebring has inspired my to return to my keyboard and peck out another photo blog entry. I don't know why Sebring tends to bring out the blogger in me but I do have couple of theories. First, it is such a unique and grueling event it my require a certain amount of reflection to digest what you've just been through.

Early week, pre-race full field photo shoot (click on image for interactive 360 view)

More so than the 24 Hours of Daytona, but maybe not quite as much as Le Mans, the 12 Hour race at Sebring demands that a photographer servicing clients or providing editorial coverage of the event will be conscious and active for about 24 hours non-stop. Even the most ambitious photographer at the 24 Hours of Daytona can grab an hour or two of sleep and still get everything down. Le Mans, with its short period of total darkness really does not provide such an opportunity.

Setting up the full field shot (click on image for interactive 360 view)

Also, for many photographers, the week or two after Sebring provides the first downtime for a full-time motorsports photographer since New Years, so it may be a good time to sit at a computer and reflect on the beginning of the year before embarking on the mid-year grind that runs pretty much through August and beyond.

In any event, this year's event provided a platform to work with my newest gadget, a 360 degree Ricoh Theta S camera.

In my 35 year career I've found that, at least for me, occasionally I need something to come along to pique my interest and keep the juices flowing. It might be a new camera, new film (back in the day) , the advent of digital photography, a new lens, a new technique or a new bit of software. Lately, the last 3 years or so, I dabbled in 360 degree panoramic photography. Until recently for me, this meant an expensive pan-head for a sturdy tripod, and taking 36 separate exposures then assembling the 360 scene on the computer.

Recently I discovered the Ricoh Theta S 360 degree camera, which has opened up a new whole new world of 360 degree subjects for me. So my 2016 Sebring blog entry features a few 360 degree scenes from this great race in Florida.

I find these images to be very revealing in that you can scroll through the entire scene, zooming in or out to check details within the scene or create artsy alternative views that you are otherwise unable to access.

www.bcpix.com is the online home for the photographic archive of Florida-based photographer Brian Cleary. At this portal not only can you search and browse an ever-growing collection of photography covering more than 30 years, but many of the images are available for online purchase as editorial images, commercial images and/or personal use prints.

March in Florida means only one thing to die-hard sports car racers: 12 Hours of Sebring! For photographers the annual half-day run under he Florida sun means chance to burn digital memory shooting in the beautiful light that only the cow pastures of mid-Florida in springtime can produce. Here's look back at a few favorites from last months shoot.

www.bcpix.com is the online home for the photographic archive of Florida-based photographer Brian Cleary. At this portal not only can you search and browse an ever-growing collection of photography covering more than 30 years, but many of the images are available for online purchase as editorial images, commercial images and/or personal use prints.

For many, many years now scientists and sci-fi writers have been promising us flying cars. But so far, these vehicles have not made an appearance on our roadways or skyways. As a veteran motor sports photographer, however, I can tell you that flying cars do exist, and I have per sally made many sightings at racetracks around the country over the past 30 years. The most recent example was just this past weekend at Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Alabama, when the green Ford Mustang pictured above made a brief flight after touching wheels with an Aston Martin shortly after the start of the race.

Over the years, there have been numerous reports of flying cars at an uphill section of the Lime Rock road course in Lakeville, CN. I myself documented several instances of flying cars at tis location, such as the Porsche, pictured above at a Grand-Am race in 2007. A more recent track modification has grounded all the cars for the time being at Lime Rock.

No less than the famous NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace himself has piloted a flying car on more than one occasion. I , among others, recorded his well documented flight of a Pontiac Le Mans at Daytona in 1993. Wallace, however, has yet to "stick" a landing!

One of my earliest photographs of a flying car took place at Daytona in a 1987 Daytona 500 qualifier. Phil Barkdoll slid sideways on the front stretch before, to everyone's surprise, his Oldsmobile headed skyward, the direct result of the recent downsizing of NASCAR stock cars in the 1980's Apparently the smaller, light cars did just fine when running a high speed in a nose-forward attitude. When the cars presented their sides or rears to the wind, however, the drivers quickly became pilots !

SO, while we still await the arrival of flying cars on the public roadways of the world, they are already a fairly common sight on our racetracks, although the flights do not tend to be of very long duration, and landings remain a problem.

www.bcpix.com is the online home for the photographic archive of Florida-based photographer Brian Cleary. At this portal not only can you search and browse an ever-growing collection of photography covering more than 30 years, but many of the images are available for online purchase as editorial images, commercial images and/or personal use prints.

I was covering a pro-am motorcycle event at Daytona International Speedway many years ago. Stationed out at the chicane, which is a pretty remote location on Daytona's road course, out of sight of the spectators and kind of a pain to get to for photographer, I was the only person in the area, other than a few corner workers out at their station.

These events were a day-long succession of short sprint races filled with club racers who were not well known and whose skills were not on a level with the great racers who compete annually in the Daytona 200, so the racing wasn't always stellar.

These circumstances can combine to lull a photographer into a trance-like hypnotic state. It was in just such a stupor that I sat as I waited for the start of the next race. At these races, the riders circle the track once in there "sighting" or warm-up lap before returning to pit road the line up and start the race.

I watch as the group of riders approached my position on their warmup lap. Suddenly one bike slowed to a stop at the entrance to the chicane. The rider got off and leaned his motorcycle against the wall. Thinking that he must have some sort of mechanical problem, I was hoping that this would not delay the start of the race by too much. Then, I watched in interest as the rider turned to the wall and appeared to be unzipping his leathers. With his back to me, I watched as a stream of liquid appeared on the wall and ran down onto the racetrack (see photo above). Relieved, the rider re-zipped his suit, climbed back onto his bike and sped off to join the other riders on the grid for the start of the race.

I looked around the remote location and realized that I was the only witness to the unusual pit stop. I laughed to myself.

My amusement turned to amazement as the same recently relieved motorcycle rider smoked the field and won the race going away! Some people jokingly say that you should always bet on the dog in a dog race who relieves himself on the way to the starting gate, as that dog will be just a little bit lighter, and I guess the same theory must apply to motorcycle racing.

www.bcpix.com is the online home for the photographic archive of Florida-based photographer Brian Cleary. At this portal not only can you search and browse an ever-growing collection of photography covering more than 30 years, but many of the images are available for online purchase as editorial images, commercial images and/or personal use prints.

For the working freelance sports photographer in Florida, New Year's Day can mean only one thing: Bowl Time!

This year there are 5 major bowl games in the state including the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, the Outback Bowl in Tampa, the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, the Capital One Bowl in Orlando and the Orange Bowl in Miami.

For the ambitious freelancer with connections, these games provide opportunities on several fronts. First, its a chance to start the year off on the right foot, with a decent payday on the very first day of the year, there is also the opportunity to get good play in the media if you can capture good shots from these high profile, high energy events, you also get the chance to fill your files with photos of potential future NFL superstars (the above photo shows Ohio State running back Eddie George in action at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando in January 1995), and finally you get to see some good, fun college football firsthand, from the sidelines rather than planted on your couch in front of the TV.

One of my favorite College bowl days stories comes from a photographer I know who lives nears Tampa. One year, as he tells it, he arose early New Year's Day and drove to the old Tampa Stadium to shoot the first quarter of the Hall of Fame Bowl. In a driving rain storm, the photographer jumped into his car and took off up I-4 to shoot a portion of the final quarter of Orlando's Citrus Bowl from an opening under the grandstands. Then it was back in the car, over to I-95 and north to Jacksonville where he worked that evening's Gator Bowl!

For the Florida freelancer, New Year's Eve is often a night of moderate celebration and early bedtime followed by the first working day of the New Year.

www.bcpix.com is the online home for the photographic archive of Florida-based photographer Brian Cleary. At this portal not only can you search and browse an ever-growing collection of photography covering more than 30 years, but many of the images are available for online purchase as editorial images, commercial images and/or personal use prints.